Banking on the future: Data Analytics, Cognitive, Blockchain & IoT to change the way Indians bank.

How far can banks, finance or insurance companies in India innovate? Is there any saturation on how BFSI can use technology? I ponder in the coming years, these companies will be like a giant tech company with a banking licence; each having their own innovation labs. Amazed by this thought? Let us see the science behind it.

The number of banks, finance and insurance companies have skyrocketed in past few years. With other sectors in India like e-commerce, automobile, telecommunications witnessing a plethora of technological advancements, somehow the marriage between technology and BFSI has taken a lot longer to get off the ground.

The customers’ pain point of carrying cash everywhere they travel has been removed by Uber by setting the bar in the payments industry. By automatically deducting the fare from their linked bank account at the end of the journey and giving this level of convenience it will be very difficult for customers to go back to older payments systems.

The science you are going to read about is not a rocket science, nor even something new. It is just that BFSI had never looked for opportunities beyond those mundane tasks they performed day-in and day-out all these years.

Data in BFSI: All these three sectors that we are talking about hold a tremendous amount of data about its customers. Businesses that have better digital engagement with clients and smart analytics have the potential to lift revenues significantly, according to the report.

Going the Big Data and Analytics way can help BFSI sector gather insights about the customers and give them lucrative personalized deals in order to decrease the steps of a sales cycle ultimately making the business more efficient. Power of personalized banking is increasing as all businesses become more and more customer-centric.

Take this scenario for example: With the rise of health conscious people using IoT devices like FitBit and Apple Watches, insurance companies can use the data to analyse this customer segment since they are more prone towards opting for a health insurance. Sounds interesting?

When the companies start making the right amount of investment in future technologies like Big Data and Analytics, they will be able to decrease the customer acquisition and retention cost by a big margin.

Cognitive in BFSI: Cognitive intelligence for any sector in India is still at a very nascent stage. Probably in ten years from now, we will find banks, insurance sectors as extremely rigid, unswayed and tedious.

It is no secret that customers will drive the future success and technology adoption of a business. On the other side, BFSI sector can use this upcoming technology in order make agile and accurate decisions, in a way giving a boom to the operational efficiency.

Data coupled with cognitive can convert excessive amount of customer information into personalized insights depending upon factors like buying ability and channels used for making transactions, etcetera.

Any business who uses this can easily:

Segment client by understanding their behaviour.

Increase the ability to predict major highlights of clients’ personal/professional cash spends by its customer in order to give loans or credit.

Creating a unique and robust automated reply system.

Upselling or cross-selling will be easy since businesses will have a complete idea of their client spends like YOLO (You Only Live Once), their ever changing behaviour and social desires.

Blockchain in BFSI: Blockchain has finally paved its way in 2017 as one of the incredibly disruptive entity rather than just being the backbone for Bitcoin since 2008. It helps in keeping records of a ledger without the interference of a third party. These parties include businesses that create infrastructure between a payer and banks, businesses that transfer money or submit invoices, etc. Blockchain is also referred to as ‘a way to create trust in the digital age’.

The hot question in the BFSI sector is the ever-changing demands on millennials. This was also envisioned by Goldman & Sachs in their global report which said, ‘one-third of millennials believe they won’t need a bank within the next five years’. This is alarming for the BFSI professionals because they will have to constantly innovate the way they tap the market because there is no way they can wait for customers to come to them.

IoT in BFSI: By the end of 2017, it is estimated that 75 per cent of the world’s population will have internet access; increasing usage of internet enabled devices from millions to billions. Using technology in BFSI while you travel is one of the most fascinating ideas when it comes and the use of IoT device from last few years is steadily increasing.

Since collaboration is the way to go for banks, they can use social media which can give so many informal insights about their customers. For instance, a bank can tie-up with a weather app which gives timely updates about their customers’ activity.

Consider a scenario where a person is jogging in the summer morning. A bank tied up with a coffee vendor can send him a notification on his smartwatch giving directions to this vendor with extra saving within an hour from now. It’s not just a concept in the book but InMobi, a mobile advertising platform from India is already using the power of pristine data, refreshing creative design and powerful back-end integrations to deliver an unparalleled advertising experience for mobile consumers.

All of these makes technology providers at the centre of the business shift from digital to innovation. But the worrying factor is the huge space between rural and urban population where rural is desperately waiting for this space to be bridged and in return connecting with the mainstream BFSI sector.

Looking at this dire need of connecting BFSI with technology at a single platform, Trescon, a global business events and consulting firm is all set to organize Fifth Edition BFSI Future Tech Conclave in Jaipur on 4 – 6 May 2017 which will have focussed sessions and fire-side chats led by industry experts.

The conclave is featuring subject matter experts, futurists, seasoned professionals and thought leaders who will discuss the state of IT in BFSI at present and in the near future. Global technology providers will showcase their latest and innovative solutions and connect with the fraternity to understand what is expected from them as drivers of technological change.

To foster synergies among market players, implement and promote best practices in the BFSI arena, Fifth Edition BFSI Future Tech Conclave is hosting some of the top senior level IT leaders from the Indian BFSI sector.

Mr. Mohammed Saleem, CEO, Trescon said, “Just as internet changed everyone’s lives, a few years from now, technology has the authority to change the BFSI sector – if used to its full potential. And fortunately India has both; technology and the acceptance of the technology.This conclave is a proven business-to-business platform for decision makers looking to source solutions with global leaders in technology who are specialized in cyber security, big data & analytics, cloud, IOT, mobility, digital banking and payment transformation solutions.”

Trescon is a global business events and consulting firm that provides wide range of business services to a diversified client base that includes corporations, governments and individuals. We are specialised in producing highly focused B2B events that connect businesses with opportunities through conferences, road shows, expos, demand generation, investor connect and consulting services.